Winter Love
by jacob.radon24
Summary: The Hidden Leaf Village is having it's coldest winter in a decade and Kiba is being sent to a boarder outpost with Ino for a few weeks. The biggest problem is that Kiba has a major crush on Ino (that only Hana knows about), and now will have to spend a lot of time with her. Will they come back from the mission hating each others guts, with a stronger friendship or something more?
1. Fresh Snow

**I do not own Naruto, if I did I would have Kiba have a crush on Ino or vise versa.**

* * *

"Kiba! Get up! It's time for breakfast!" My sister called to me from the kitchen below.

I groaned in response and tried to block out Hana's annoying calls by covering my head with a pillow. _Please! Just five more minutes..._ I thought to myself.

For a few seconds I laid in that position attempting to get back to my sweet dream that I couldn't remember anymore. Until that is my nose picked up a scent. This caused me to poke my nose out from under my pillow and test out the scent again, just to double check. I sniffed.

_Bacon_ was what popped into mind, my favorite breakfast! I immediately jumped out of my bed, but got my foot caught one of the sheets and sent me tumbling onto the floor. That woke up Akamaru from his sleep at the foot of my bed and pretty soon he was barking in my face in alarm, and because of the rude awakening I had given him.

"Akamaru...quiet." I growled in a whisper to him. Luckily he got the message and stopped barking, only to start giving me a good morning lick. Which caused me to laugh and Hana to thump the floor boards. "Kiba! Stop jumping out of your bed! You're going to fall through the roof someday if you keep that up!"

I laughed. My sister may be many things but she isn't good at scolding other people, especially me. I got dressed into my usual ninja attire then rushed out my door, down the hallway and downstairs with Akamaru hot on my trail.

When I reached downstairs I found my sister all dressed in her usual cream medical ninja suit with her hair tied into a pony tail. She was cooking up some strips of bacon on a pan and already had some eggs cooked and served on a plate on the table. When she was me she gave me a friendly smile. "I see you finally got up, after breakfast the Hokage wishes to speak with you." She told me before looking down towards the sizzling pan.

I took my seat at the table and started consuming the eggs. They weren't as good as bacon but I'd had worse. While I ate Hana gave Akamaru his bowl of dog food. After I had eaten my eggs my sister walked up with the pan and scraped the crisped bacon strips onto my plate with a spatula. "You need to eat more greenery or else you won't be a Chunnin any time soon." She then kissed my head and gave my hair a ruffle before walking back to the sink. "I'll eat my green as soon as they can make lettuce taste like steak." I retorted with a chuckle which Hana smiled to.

Hana then left to her job and I fed Akamaru the last slice of bacon which he barked a thank you in return. I laughed and he waged his tail hoping for more. "Sorry bud, I ate the rest. Remind me next time to leave you more." He growled at me which I took to mean 'You said that last time and I tried to remind you this morning!' Which I laughed harder at. No matter what we were always buddies, nothing and nobody would ever separate us.

I got up with my plate and fork and left them in the sink before leaving with Akamaru to see the Hokage. _Maybe finally I will get a B or A ranked mission this time, a guy can always dream can't he._ I thought to myself as I left the Inuzuka compound.

Outside there was a fresh layer of snow on the ground and everybody was wearing warm gear to counteract the cool temperature. As I walked along the street I noticed that Akamaru was looking cold so I picked him up with a smile and tucked him into his usual spot in my jacket. Even though his paws were freezing he quickly warmed up and snuggled into my body heat. I smiled to my best friend as we continued on our walk to the Hokage.

When I finally reached the residence the winds had picked up and there was snow starting to blow into everyone's faces, but Akamaru only tried to catch snowflakes with a snap of his jaws. I only laugh at his childish antics when we walked inside and up the Hokage office. When Shizune saw me she nodded with a smile. "She is waiting for you."

I thanked her and knocked on the door. "Come in." I heard Tsunade say. I opened the door and saw her sitting at her desk wearing her usual green robe and grey blouse, except this time she had a wool hat and gloves on the side of her desk. _Even she gets cold in this weather._ I noticed.

I closed the door behind me and sat in the chair in front of her desk. "Hello Kiba." She said with a grin. _Oh ho, this can't be good..._ I thought to myself. Tsunade only smiles like that to Naruto when she has a boring mission for him, and with Naturo training with Jiraiya she must be looking for someone to replace him. "I have a C ranked mission for you and another Genin to complete. You two will be reinforcing a boarder outpost in The Village Hidden in The Waterfall while we wait for a team of Chunnin to take over command there." She debriefed me which I nodded in response.

_Well a C ranked is better then I thought, but in this winter weather, I'm not sure it is a good thing. And who is going with me on this mission with me anyways? _I thought as the door opened behind me. "Ah and here's your teammate, Kiba."

I turned around and my jaw dropped when I saw who it was.

Ino Yamanaka

* * *

**Sorry if this chapter was boring for you, it is just to give you a little background to the plot.**


	2. Frozen Crush

**I do not own Naturo, if I did I would have made a pairing between Lee and an girl he would meet up with on his runs with Guy.**

* * *

There she was. Ino Yamanaka. Covered in a purple sweater, a purple woolly hat with a white pom pom on top, and thick sweat pants with purple and white stripes. I could see she was shocked at learning I was going to team up with her for this mission since her pale blue eyes were wide with shock, then her eye brows crunched up into anger.

That made me remember how I had first met her. And how I had first started to crush on her.

**Flashback**

It was during my childhood when my mom and Kuromaru took me down street towards the local Yananaka Flower Shop to buy some flowers. The bell rang as I walked in, closely followed by my mom, and I was assaulted by the sweet smells of the flowers of the shop.

I could smell the super sweet nectar and hear a few bees buzzing around the flowers. I also could see the different flowers. One had black and orange stripes, another was blue with purple dots, there were so many unique colour patterns it gave me a headache to try to memorise or count them all.

Mom , Kuromaru and I walked towards the counter where a blond-haired man appeared to be talking to someone under the desk, which I thought looked very strange.

"Hello Tsume. How are you today?" He asked my mom. I was going to listen to her reply when I looked over at a one of the desks corners and saw a little blond haired girl.

She was wearing a little white and orange dress with her hair tied into a small bun. And her eyes...they were the colour of the pale blue sky, the prettiest eyes I had ever seen. I could see she was very shy and when I had seen her she zipped away behind the desk, so instinctively I followed her around the desk and towards the big blond man. He didn't see me (at least he didn't appear to) luckily and I followed the little girl under the desk. She was in another corner and hadn't seen me.

"Hello." I whispered. She spun around and stared at me with big bulging blue eyes. Then finally after what seemed like a minute of staring she spoke.

"H-hello." She stuttered still looking frightened. So I held out my hand to shake.

"I'm Kiba, who are you?" She was hesitant at first of shaking my hand but she slowly crawled over and shook it.

"Ino, my daddy is a ninja." She told me and I smiled.

"My mommy is a ninja too." I replied which made her smile.

"Do you want to be a ninja when you grow up?" I asked.

Ino smiled and made a proud expression. "I'm not going to be just any old ninja, i'm going to be Hokage!" She shouted.

I laughed at her when she said that which mad her frown. "Don't laugh at me, I will be, you'll see!"

I nodded. "I wasn't laughing at you, I was laughing because i'm going ti be Hokage, not you. You're a girl." I told her with a cocky grin.

Ino giggled at that. "Girls a better then boys, didn't you know that."

I was about to give her a stinging reply when my mom reached out from under the table and pulled me out. When I looked up she was glaring at me. "Kiba, I told you no running off. Now lets get you back to the compound." She scolded me then proceeded to walk out of the shop with Kuromaru close behind her. I was close behind her when I noticed Ino from outside that shop and waved to her goodbye. She waves back with a big smile and I ran to catch up with my mom felling an odd sensation in my stomach.

**Flashback End**

That was how I first met Ino and started crushing on her, even now when I looked her butterflies fluttered in me, and now she was glaring at me like on that day and looking towards Tsunade.

"Him?!" She yelled. "I'm going to be doing a mission with dog breath here? Couldn't I go with Choji, or Shikamaru, or Saku..."

Tsunade interupted. "Now Ino, I know you and Kiba have a resentment towards each other that I will never understand but you must understand you need to keep up with your battle tactics knowledge and not just your healing jutsu studies. If you don't, you could get rusty in battle which is something we can't have."

Ino was about to argue with her when Tsunade spoke up again. "And the reason Kiba is going with you is that he is one of the best ninjutsu Genin, so you will be needing him for protection if needed."

"I don't need protection from anything, I can take care of myself." She argued. I choose it was time to speak up after that.

"Sorry girly but I seem to remember back in the academy you lost most of your spars. And the only ones you did win were with those less powerful then you." Akamrau barked in agreement.

She smirked at that. "Oh, like how I beat you when we were against each other?"

Akamaru and I growled at that, and anybody who walked through the door right now would see lightning between us because of the tension. Ino was about to say something when Tsunade yelled. "STOP FIGHTING YOU TWO!"

We both froze and looked back over at Tsunade. "Now you two will work together or be stuck on D rank mission for the next year." That made us quickly stop fighting and we both nodded. _D rank for a year! Please don't mess this up Ino..._

After Ino was debriefed with the mission details we both left the office. When I had closed the door behind me Ino spoke up. "We'll meet at the gates in 2 hours. Be there." She said is a scary dark voice. I didn't want to fight with her anymore so I nodded and we went our separate ways.

* * *

**Sorry if I made Ino a shy girl when she was little, but the fashback was about when both of them were about 3 or 4 years old, and more than a few kids are shy at that age.**


	3. Before I leave

**I do not own Naruto, if I did Haku would have a twin brother who is a leaf ninja.**

* * *

As I was about a minute away from home when I realised the obvious. I had just been given the chance to spend time with Ino! Ino, the girl i've been crushing on since I was 4, the girl with a hot headed attitude, the girl who can punch harder then any girl I know, the girl who always seems to smell of a different flower each day!

I was so caught up with spending time with her that I didn't notice Hana and I were about to collide into each other until it was too late. When both knocked each other down with me rubbing my head and Akamaru struggling to get out of my jacket, until he finally did after leaving a few marks as a reminder.

Akamaru then faced me and barked in protest to my day dreaming. "Oh be quite, you're still breathing aren't you." He growled at that but didn't have time to possibly bite me because Hana walked up with a smile.

"Daydreaming about Ino again aren't we?" She said knowing the answer.

She has known about my crush for years now and every now and again teases me about it.

Flashback

I had just come back from the academy and was resting on a chair with my eyes open and thinking about Ino today. She had punched the lights out of a boy who put a bug down her dress. She screamed so loud Akamaru wined and tried to cover his ears, but the boy who did the deed was taken by the nurse until he regained consciousness.

I smiled dreamily while Akamaru slept next to the fire. _Ino is so different from all the other girls. Sakura is close to what she is like but she just doesn't look like her. Ino has fair hair the colour of ripe wheat, aqua eyes that turn from piercing ice to the calming sky._

Suddenly someone shook my shoulder and I yelped. I jumped so high I landed on the floor with a bang. "Ouch!" I cried and rubbed my rear. I could hear laughing behind me and saw my older sister rolling on the ground...laughing, chuckling, giggling, crying with laughter.

I glared at her until she finally wiped away her tears and got control of her body functions.

"What was that about?" I growled but that just caused her to only break down into a pile of giggles once again.

"You...you were talking to yourself." She got out before breaking out in a fit of laughter.

I froze on her words before speaking again. "W-what did I say?" I asked nervously. 'Stupid me, Ino was right, I do have the brain of the dog.' I thought.

After she had finally stopped laughing she said with a grin "oh you only decripbed a fair haired girl with ice eyes. And you mentioned an Ino as well."

I blushed with embarrassment as Hana grins at my discomfort. 'Now what will she do...'

"Awww, my little brothers got a crush!" She squealed and hugged me.

"So you're not going to tell anybody?" I asked cautiously.

She smiled at that and winked. "I promise, but if you don't tell me about her i'll let the whole village know."

I nodded vigorously and blurted out everything with Hana taking everything in.

Flashback End

"Shut up..." I muttered and trying to hid a blush. Even though Hana never told anyone she still teased me.

"So how did the meeting with the Hokage go?" She asked changing the subject.

"She gave me a mission to guard the border outpost next to The Village Hidden In The Waterfall." I said nonchalantly.

"Oh, and will anybody be going with you?" She questioned.

I nodded with a blush and whisperer under my breath. "Ino..." But my sister with her Izuma hearing heard me a grinned. _Oh no, please no more advise..._

"Well, best of luck to you." She said which surprised me.

"What? No advise?" I was a little disappointed to hear that from her. She usually gave me advice on Ino, even if I never used it.

She smiled and gave me a small hug. "Just be sure not to forget your thermals and animal skins. They will keep you warm, but if it gets really cold another's body heat could save a persons life." She informed me with a wink, clueless to what she meant. But before I had time to ask Hana had left me in the middle of the hard packed snow of the street.

I then spent the next hour stuffing a large backpack full with skins, weapons, tools, rations, dog food, water, a tent, thermals, a toothbrush...basically everything I could possibly need on a month long mission in the winter. After changing my sandals to white boots I still had an hour left before I had to meet up with Ino, so I choose I'd might as well have a hot meal before leaving. So I grabbed Akamaru, stuffed him into my jacket, threw on my mission backpack, and started my way through the snow and towards Sumria's Kebabs, my favourite kebab shop.

After a few minutes I found Sumria's on its usual street. I opened the door, kicked the snow off my my boots, and walked inside. When I closed the door behind me I smelt beef, pork, potatos, fish, seaweed, chicken, bacon, and lots of spices. This was my sort of place, a pleace where you could get almost anything you want to eat on a stick.

I took a seat in a double table the slightly packed shop and sat down waiting for a waiter to ask for my order. While waiting I started to think about the mission again. 'Wow...me an Ino alone on a mission. I wonder if i'll be brave enough to tell her my feelings, instead of acting like a hot headed jerk as I usually do. But even if I do tell her it might ruin whatever friendship we already have, and then if she rejects me...I don't know what I might do.'

Akamaru then choose that moment to lick my cheek, maybe he could read my mind. 'At least I will always have Akamaru to comfort me and be my should to cry on, he is the only guy who understands me except for maybe Hana but I don't trust her with all my secrets.'

I'd been working on some new jutsus that Akamaru and I have almost mastered. Every weekend now we head to the training grounds when nobody is around and practiced until sun down. So far we have been working on a new taijutsu strategy for defence and blocking rather then offence and attacking. Even though it is a different fighting style to what we're used to we still need more things up our sleeve after revealing our Double-Headed Wolf and Double WolfFang when we battled Sakon and Ukon. Besides that Akamaru.

Kurenia sensei actually gave me, Shino and Henita special pieces of paper so that we could learn about our Nature Transformation jutsu. She told us to feed some chakra into the papers which caused mine to turn to dirt and then crumble away. Henita's paper became wet and soggy and Shinos ignited and turned to ash. Kurenia sensei told me that my nature affinity was Eath, Henita's was Water and Shino's was Fire. Henita and I were happy to learn these new facts but Shino only kept to his monotone expression, yet I think he was smiling on the inside.

That all happened a month ago and since then i've been studying earth release jutsus, but so far I haven't been able to use them. Yet it can take any number of years to master an element, so i've got plenty of time to learn.

As all the was running through my head as waiter came and asked for my kebab order. "Pig lovers special." I told him and he left after a small bow. Then a minute later he came back with a freshly cooked kabab covered in lengths of pork, strips of red and white bacon, and a sausage on the top with another on the bottom. When Akarmaru saw the kebab he licked his chops ready to sink his teeth into the meaty treat.

I laughed at his desperate actions to get my Pig lovers special and reached for the kebab. "Thank you." I said the the waiter and gripped the kebab handle before he retreated from me and the crazy white dog in me jacket. Then just as I brought the top sausage towards my mouth my so called partner ripped himself out of my jacker, took the whole kebab from my hand and ran out the door as Shino was coming in. He was wearing his usual ninja outfit except for a large white wolly hat on his head.

I sighed as Shino saw where I was and made his way towards me. _There goes my last hot meal for a while. Taken out of my hands by by my best friend, so much for mans best friend, more like mans worst nightmare... _I thought just as Shino arrived at my table and sat down across from me.

"Hey Shino." I said a bit bitterly, still heart broken over Akamaru's treachery.

Shino only nodded. "I thought I would find you here. I also heard you're on a mission with Ino." He said with no facial expression.

I only shrugged. "Yeah, she'll be a pain." I lied. On the inside I was doing back flips in joy.

"You say that, but both of us know you've been crushing on her since before the academy." Shino said bluntly which caused me to freeze. _How did he know, only Hana knows...i've been so careful not to stare at her._

I was about to deny his accusation when Shino spoke again. "And don't deny it because my bugs listen in on your conversations."

Kiba took a deep breath and was about to make an excuse when he realised there was no fighting Shino on this, he knew that I was crushing on Ino and how long too.

"What do you want then?" I asked with a sigh. If he wants to laugh at me just do it already.

"I wanted to let you know that I don't know what you see in her and that you might have a chance with her, now that she has given up on Sauake." He informed me in his monotone voice.

I was a little shocked at his news and but kept my cool. "And I suppose you spy on others too, and thats how you know." I enquired, but I already knew the answer to the question. Who knew Shino was such a spy master, good thing he's not a motor mouth.

I sighed and left my table and the shop after paying for the Kabab. Outside I found Akamaru looking very swollen from the meat and asleep in the snow. I picked him up and stuffed him into my jacket, hoping he wouldn't throw up onto me when he woke up from his eating induced sleep.

I looked back at the shop. _I promise to be back my meaty __love._I thought to myself and ran towards the village gates where Ino would be waiting...for me.


	4. Snowy Forest

At the large boarder gates to the village Kiba could see Ino standing there and tapping her foot in the snow, in impatience. Which looked like there was something trying to get out from under the snow. She was wearing the same clothes as before and had a smaller backpack compared to mine. The only difference in her clothing was that she was without her cute purple puffball hat.

Someone must have laughed at the hat or maybe her mother forced her to wear the hat and took it off when she left. Either way she's going to freeze her ears off... Blue ears are not attractive. I thought to myself as I walked up to Ino.

"Were were you?!" The blond's first words when I halted in front of her. "I've been waiting out in this freezer for the last half hour!" She screeched before punching my shoulder, unbalancing me and causing myself to fall backwards into the soft pale snow, cushioning my landing.

We hadn't even left the village yet and we were fighting with each other. I groaned in frustration before sitting up right and shaking off the snow. Akamaru had slept through the whole thing and was still asleep as I stood up and tried to catch up with Ino who had started on her way out of the village without me.

We stayed on the main road before turning on an old track North towards the outpost. The track wasn't used very much and had tall trees towering above us blocking out the sun. But at least the trees blocked out most snow for us as we walked through waist high grasses and berry bushes.

As the hours passed by without any speaking what so ever I choose to break the silence with a joke.

"Akamaru ate my lunch." I stated. Ino didn't even look at me and only shrugged. Great job genius, you've caused her to build some walls between you and her. Try something else.

"How have the flowers been?" I asked hoping she would answer.

She look at me with a frown as we continued on walking through the forest of snow covered trees. 'She isn't usually this.' I thought to myself. As we were passing by a nearby stream I called a halt with a raised hand.

"We'll stop here and rest for a few minutes."

Ino frowned at this, but I could tell she was already exhausted from carrying all her gear after hours of walking, so she didn't complain and sat on one of the large grey rocks next to the stream. I sat down next to her and slung off my backpack, then took out a roast beef sandwich and handed it to Ino.

"Here take this, it'll..." I started, when out of the blue Akamaru, who was supposed to be asleep, leapt out of my jacket, once again, and too my food, once again. He ran into a nearby bush and I started to hear him munching on the sandwich.

I was in a state of shock for a few moment before I heard someone giggling. I looked towards the sound and saw it was Ino. She had a hand over her mouth and was in a fit of giggles, which were now turning into full blown laughs. I only stared at her for what seemed like hours, just taking in the image of joy etched on her face before breaking into laughter myself.

We laughed like that until both of us were laying in the snow. Ino was the first to stand up and brush off the snow off herself with her gloves.

"Now that thats over we sould keep going." Ino said with a small smile as she strapped back on her pack. I got up and slung back on my backpack, then tried to catch up with Ino with a grin. 'At last, something to break the ice.' I thought to myself, and blushing a little when Ino turned back to me with a dazzling smile.

"See! I told you Akamaru ate my food! The little thief..." I told Ino once I got in pace with her. My heart skipped a beat when she laughed, which sounded like an angle singing. At that moment Akamaru came running up and ploughing through the snow. I looked down at him with a frown.

"You stole my food Akamaru..." I scolded him. Akamaru only wagged his tail at me.

"You can't just wag your tail and pretend you didn't do anything wrong. For that you're going to walk in the snow." I punished, then continued with my pace. Akamaru walked happily next to me for a while before walking up next to Ino, who was a little bit ahead of me.

Seeing him so close to Ino gave me a hint of jealously. 'I should be the one next to her...' I though with a small growl. But I knew that I will do my best to get close to her during the limited time we would have together.

A few hours later it started getting dark so I choose to set up camp in a nearby clearing. While Akamaru and I looked for some dry wood to make a fire with, Ino set up the tent and got a fire pit ready. But before coming back into the clearing (with an arm load of wood) I stood in the trees and watched Ino from a distance.

Ino had set up most of the framing in the green camo tent and was driving in the last of the pegs into the ground. She looked plainly beautiful with the snow around her, but she was alway beautiful in my eyes. Even when we butted heads and fought over the smallest things she still was gorgeous with that hot headed attitude.

Just then Akamaru decided to show up next to me carrying a large stick in his mouth. I sighed at him and gave him a pat on his head, he maybe a pain sometimes but he was my best friend and team mate. Akamaru wagged his tail and we both jumped into the open. When Ino noticed us behind her she turn around and huffed, I guess she was annoyed with me, again.

"Well where have you been? Huh? Playing fetch with Akamaru I see." She guessed with a stick in his mouth.

"No no no, Akamaru was helping me collect wood then he chased after a cricket." I lied, hopefully she didn't realise there are no crickets in the snow. But all she did was shake her head and say something under her breath about, "pig headed...", then crawl into the tent. Just then some of my sisters advice pooped into my mind, "When a guy makes a girl mad, it's because he likes her, but when a girl makes a guy mad, it's because she is denying her feelings."

I sighed and looked into the sky, this was going to be a long night with Ino sleeping next to me. All I could cling to now was hope that Hana's words are true. After a few moments of watching Akamaru snap his jaws with his successful attempts at catching snowflakes I knocked on the tent flap.

"Is it safe to come in?" I asked, not wanting to get slapped if is stuck my head inside.

"Yes, but keep to your side mister or else your sleeping in the snow." Ino threatened, to which I responded with a gulp and a nod to myself. I didn't want to freeze to death before by 14th birthday.

When I opened the tent flap I noticed Ino had already set up my new grey and brown striped sleeping bag, with her old, faded purple and yellow striped sleeping bag. She had also arranged all my equipment onto one side and her equipment onto the other side. This gave me a slight surprise, she was serious. I felt a little hurt about how repulsed she was to me and my stuff. That wasn't a good omen for me.

Ino was taking a bite out of a crimson apple when I entered the grey tent. She kept her eyes on me as I crawled into my sleeping bag. Once I was warm and comfy with Akamaru next to me I looked over at Ino only to see that she had rolled onto her right side and fallen asleep. I only watched in content as her face softened as she drifted into sleep's warm embrace. In that moment I could see how vulnerable she really is, underneath that hard shell she puts up Ino is still a gentle person.

_She's a lot like me in that way._ I thought to myself as I drifted off into my land of dreams, about Ino... This is no more merely a stupid childhood crush, I had fallen for this loud mouthed, hot headed, bewitching blond. And I promised myself to protect her from everything and everyone even if she didn't feel the same way about me. _Gods...how did I get into this situation..._ I thought before smelling flowers and fading from reality.


End file.
